San Marcos community garden creates a bountiful oasis

SAN MARCOS -- The San Marcos community garden is open to anyone
with interested in making things grow.

For San Marcos sisters Jeanne Tillery and Sharon Smith, however,
working the soil is a special labor of love honoring their late
father and the garden's first caretaker, Jim Gaumitz, who died in
2003.

"I can just feel his presence there," said Tillery, who
maintains a flower plot in the community garden next to her
sister's vegetable garden. "People miss him very much, there's no
one else that can answer their questions like he could."

The spot now serves as a sort of memorial to the lifelong
gardener. Renamed the Jim Gaumitz Garden, the place serves as a
resource for community members to come together to socialize and
learn.

"The garden brings in folks with common interests and projects,"
said Bill Schramm, the director of the San Marcos Community
Services Department, which oversees the garden. "You learn a lot
with different people and different backgrounds enjoying their
shared interest. The goal is for people to share the excitement of
gardening."

The garden, on a quiet hill at 1263 Fulton Road, is open to the
public for nearly anything growers can imagine. Though fresh weeds
fill some of the spaces because of recent wet weather, herbs,
roses, squash, tomatoes, daffodils and pumpkins will soon fill many
of the 30 plots, creating a fragrant haven for butterflies and
chirping birds.

Plots are available to San Marcos residents 18 years or older
for an annual $20 fee. An additional one-time fee of $20 is
required for overall operational expenses, such as water fees.

Eight plots are still available for purchase; all plots are 15
by 20 feet in size. The garden is overseen by an on-site resident.
No commercial gardening is allowed, though as a communal space,
users are permitted to share their harvests.

"Gardeners can trade off," Schramm said. "If you do the labor,
you get the fruit." Gardening tools and hoses are provided and
users are encouraged to chip in with any extra equipment. Mulch is
also provided.

The garden is open seven days a week, and gardeners may come and
go as needed. However, rules require users to maintain their spaces
year-round -- inactive plots are turned over to gardeners on a
waiting list for open spaces.

The garden began nearly 30 years ago, on the site of the current
City Hall and library buildings. It was moved to Fulton Road in
1992.

The garden now serves as a quiet oasis for people to come
together, away from busier aspects of life.

"It's very calm," Tillery said. "Sometimes I go there just to
get away."

For more information on the San Marcos community garden, call
the San Marcos Community Services Department at (760) 744-9000.